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How the Jake Hole got its name
Just upstream from the historic O&W Railroad Bridge over the Big South Fork River is a peaceful pool of water that is known as the Jake Hole. This calm pool is a sharp contrast to the whitewater rapids above and below it at the exit to what paddlers refer to as The Canyon, before the river flows through the O&W Rapid and calms considerably the rest of the way to the Cumberland River in Kentucky. This week, Echoes in Time takes a look at how this peaceful pool of water got its name — as told by Dave Smith of Muncie, Ind.
Like so many others, Smith’s family left the Big South Fork region to seek fortune in the factories of the Midwest. But it is a family with deep roots in the region, dating back to the very earliest human settlement here. John “Hawk” Smithwas one of the most colorful residents the BSF region ever knew, and his grandfather, Anderson Smith, was the first person to settle at the confluence of Station Camp Creek and Laurel Creek west of the river. Anderson married the daughter of Richard Harve Slaven, the first white settler of the Big South Fork region.
Dave Smith is a veritable encyclopedia of the Big South Fork region, able to recall stories of the people and places of a bygone era that were handed down by his ancestors who lived in the area. His grandfather was Alford Smith, the namesake of Alford Smith Road that leads to the Grand Gap Loop Trail in the Bandy Creek area. We’ve shared his stories before, including the real location of Jerome Boyatt’s surrender to Scott County authorities near what is today Angel Falls Village.
So how did the Jake Hole get its name?
According to Smith, it was named for his great-uncle, Jake Smith.
Born in 1887, Jacob “Jake” Smith was the oldest son of John “Hawk” Smith and Polly Ann Blevins. Alford Smith was his younger brother.
Dave Smith previously related the story of how Hawk Smith got his nickname: an old woman at Station Camp, Betty Smith, had a habit of assigning nicknames to everyone who lived in the river valley. She named John and his brothers after birds: John Hawk, Jim Raven, Bill Crow, and Anse Buzzard. John’s name stuck, and even today the spot he lived on the river downstream from Angel Falls is known as the John Hawk Smith Place. He and Polly (who was the daughter of Dianthus and Sarah Blevins, and a great-granddaughter of early BSF settler Jonathan Blevins) had 12 kids.
Jake worked as both a blacksmith and a well-driller. Alford would eventually leave the Big South Fork during the World War II era and move to the fledgling city of Oak Ridge to work on the Manhattan Project. But in the 1910s, the brothers worked on the Oneida & Western Railroad, which was being built between Oneida and Jamestown to help with the extraction of coal and timber in the vast woodlands west of the Big South Fork River. According to Dave Smith, his grandfather said he made $2 per 10-hour day worked.
“One time when some workers were taking some dynamite across the river about a half mile upstream (of the bridge), the boat overturned and threw two men into the river,” Dave Smith said. “Grandpa’s brother Jake Smith saw it and jumped in the river and got one of the men back to the bank. He was an excellent swimmer and went back to get the other man but he had went under the swift water. Jake couldn’t find him and he drowned. A lot of men went out in boats the rest of the day but couldn’t locate him.”
Smith said his grandfather went to the family’s blacksmith shop and made some sharp hooks, which he attached to ropes for the purpose of dragging the river.
“He went down below the bridge outside of the swift water where he thought he might have ended up,” Smith said. “After a long time of dragging, Grandpa managed to hook the man in the end of his shirt sleeve, and pulled him to the boat. He told Dad he could never forget the sight of the man coming up towards the boat with his arm and fingers extended like he was reaching for Grandpa with his eyes open.”
Dave Smith said that Alford later took two other grandsons to the river on a camping trip and told them the story of the drowning.
“He said that the man (who drowned) was his best friend, and after he got him out of the river, he said, ‘I walked out to the middle of that bridge, and threw my hammer as far as I could into the river, and never worked another day on it.’”
Today, the pool of water upstream from O&W Bridge is a popular spot for camping and fishing, and is still known as the Jake Hole. The overlook from the cliff high above the river — accessible via the John Muir Trail — is commonly called the Jake Hole Overlook.
Jake Smith married Ella Litton. He died in 1971 and is buried at Hazel Valley Memorial Cemetery in Oneida.
Alford Smith first married Nancy Burke (1895-1925) and later married Elva Choate (1906-1996). He died in 1970 and is also buried at Hazel Valley. He had 13 children, including Dave’s father, Claude Smith. Claude, who worked in the coal mines at Zenith before enlisting in the U.S. Army, was in the first boat to land on Utah Beach during the Normandy Invasion on D-Day. He was later wounded in France. He moved to Indiana after the war and worked as a welder.
The last surviving child of Alford Smith was Milford Smith, who died in 2022 and is buried at Hazel Valley.
Thank you for reading. Our next newsletter will be Threads of Life tomorrow. If you’d like to update your subscription to add or subtract any of our newsletters, do so here. If you haven’t yet subscribed, it’s as simple as adding your email address!
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Our Newsletters:
• Monday morning: The Daybreaker (news & the week ahead)
• Tuesday: Echoes from the Past (stories of our history)
• Wednesday: Threads of Life (obituaries)
• Thursday evening: The Weekender (news & the weekend)
• Friday: Friday Features (beyond the news)
• Sunday: Varsity (a weekly sports recap)